With a new mini-album Broader Than Broadway on shelves, Blue Mountains-bred troupe Belles Will Ring are venue-hopping around the east coast. They take a moment to chat to FL about the happy tedium of touring and shedding those – œ60s throwback references.
Congrats on the upcoming tour! Tell us what’s in store for your travel adventures…
Thanks a bunch, Bruce. In our adventures, we’re going to ride on our ATVs along the east coast of Australia with two well mannered bands – Little Scout and The Philadelphia Grand Jury to catch some fish hogs. And maybe we’ll play some music as well.
Who would you say are some key influences or even inspirations in your work? I sense a lot of Beatles and ‘60s Pink Floyd in there…
We’re an odd bunch as we like a whole hot pot of things. Having said that, we were inspired by music from Stax Records, Nuggets collection, Simon and Garfunkel, United States of America, Love, Spaceman 3 and definitely the Byrds. Things have moved on and we’re more interested in bands or artists that were, or still are pushing boundaries. Things come to mind: Suicide, Einsturzende Neubauten, The Stooges, Jandek and Scott Walker, to name a few.
The immediate feel that comes to mind when listening to your song Renegades is feel-good, sunshiny pop; whereas I’m Walkin’ Here channels an almost angry feeling. How do you come to the creative ‘feel’ of each song?
To be honest, Renegades was an experiment and I don’t think we’re planning on making a song like that again. I still think it’s a great pop track – very sunshiny, as you said. Having said that, I think we just do whatever feels right; we tend to work on a sixth sense kind of vibe, not to try and sound contrived. If it don’t feel right, we don’t do it!
You’re also a member of The Paper Scissors. The Australian musical landscape seems to be a bit like an Alabamian family – close-knit and inbred! What do you guys see as the biggest challenges facing Australian musicians these days?
One of the biggest challenges is raising enough money to leave the country! Unfortunately we have a government who still doesn’t see the importance of cultural exchange through the Arts. I think it will get better, but we’re still waiting (Mr. Peter Garrett? Hello?)
But also, I think the biggest challenge to the Australian musician is trying to keep it interesting when you’re stuck here. That’s why we all have different side projects: Liam plays in The Late Night Sounds and Sister Jane, Aidan plays in/is The Maple Trail, I am a part of a few things, some of which I’m thankfully, not stuck behind the kit! These include The Paper Scissors, Machine Death and Hose Beast, to name a few. Kent goes to electro/indie clubs and DJs…sometimes.
Touring/performing versus recording – which the necessary evil; which is the unadulterated joy?
That’s a little hard to choose, there are pros and cons of both. Touring: You play music with good friends, travel, see the sights and hopefully a minimum of the inside of planes or vans! The only time it gets tedious is having to wake up every morning and repeat the process ad nauseam. I never thought travelling could wear you down – it does, so I discovered.
Recording – you get to spend the time crafting your songs, as we produce and record everything ourselves. Getting the sounds just right and making sure the songs sound how you want means we can spend as much as we want. This can also be a problem. There’s a reason why there’s only seven songs on the new mini-album, you know?
Why only seven tracks – a ‘mini-album’ per se – as opposed to an LP or a full album? Future plans for longer/shorter releases?
We initially intended it to be a full-length record and we only got as far as seven or eight tracks. We found after listening back to what we had recorded, that the others we’d written didn’t really fit in with what we’d already done. And as we record everything by ourselves, we were burnt out from the process.
We tried to knock them into shape but we just couldn’t muster the energy to finish the bloody things! As it turned out, we were happy with the songs we had completed and found that they flowed quite well. I think also, in our hearts, we didn’t want to make this pseudo-psychedelic music any more. Hopefully with an intended full length record that we’re going to record in winter, we can rid ourselves of any – œ60s throwback references.
- œBelles Will Ring are celebrating the release of Broader Than Broadway nationally throughout March. Catch them at the following shows, and head to www.remotecontrolrecords.com.au for more details.
Thur 5 March – Great Northern, Byron Bay
Fri 6 March – Bon Amici, Toowoomba
Sat 7 March – The Troubadour, Bris
Fri 13 March – Baroque, Katoomba
Sat 14 March – Transit Bar, Canberra
Fri 20 March – Spectrum, Sydney
Sat 21 March – Spectrum, Sydney
to listen to their music now on 